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Aside from the obvious societal and legal implications, the proposal by Senators Rand Paul, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Cory Booker to change marijuana from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule II drug will also have financial ramifications.

Today, in an interview with Vice News, President Obama was given a softball question about legalization that he easily could have taken. I'm happy he didn't take the bait. In fact, he made some of his most lengthy comments to date about substance abuse, particularly legalization.

Before we get on with all the politics, we have two unrelated announcements. The first is tomorrow's quirk in the calendar. Actually, today is quirky as well, if you're a friggatriskaidekaphobe, since it's Friday the 13th.

Seen as a whole, the current federal attitude towards marijuana can truly be described as "doublethink." There are so many contradictions in the government's attitude that they are indeed hard to accurately count.

Medical marijuana patients just got a step closer to what we need, with the introduction yesterday of a historic medical marijuana bill in the U.S. Senate. With medical science and public opinion on our side, compassion can win out over the legacy of fear-mongering from the past century.

Despite heavy opposition from the public and the country's medical profession, Uruguay made headlines last year when the country passed a law allowing the sales of state-grown marijuana in pharmacies to registered users.

Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. is this week's Most Impressive Democrat of the Week award-winner, for doing a much better job arguing the case for President Obama's interpretation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act before the Supreme Court than he did the last time around.

As majorities of both supporters and opponents agree, marijuana legalization is inevitable. But the specifics matter, and with each jurisdiction approaching legalization in slightly different ways, there are many opportunities to learn what works and what doesn't.

Herbert "Doc" Koenig is a security guard in the building where I work. He don't need no stinking badge (he has an ID card with a photo of his goateed visage and the word "Doc" under it) and he doesn't carry a pistol, mainly because he is one. But he does have a rapier wit that could disarm the most suspicious intruder.

Mujica projected, from his presidential perch, the wildly innocent virtue of Uruguay itself -- and magnified it. If Uruguay as a country is part exile, part refuge, Mujica made the country more the latter. One thing is certain, the world will remember Mujica -- the president, the person.

"In this city, people are killing each other over marijuana more so than anything that we had to deal with an '80s and '90s with heroin and cocaine," said Bratton. "We just see marijuana everywhere when we make these arrests, when we get these guns off the streets."

Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington D.C., deserves at least an honorable mention, for standing strong in the face of threats of jail time from House Republicans, for allowing the will of the voters (70 percent of them) to become law this week.

Alaska's law legalizing recreational marijuana use went into effect Tuesday. While the law outlines conduct surrounding personal use, what commercialization will look like is left up to the state to figure out. The state has nine months to craft regulations for businesses.